‘Project Rocket Stove’ is one of the many EVG project with the partner, HSBC. In the past, we build many water tanks to save water for people who don’t have the money to build their own. This time, we come to Gia Bac village to help people to build Rocket stove.

Rocket Stove uses the concept of maximizing the heat from burning wood to for cooking purposes. It releases little exhausted air. The air it releases is CO, less poisonous than CO2, which normal stove release. Due to the lifestyle of the people in Gia Bac, their houses do not have window and the stoves are usually near to where they sleep. These normal stoves within the house are hazardous to health. Thus, the Rocket Stove will be a better alternative to people in Gia Bac.

On Sept 12, all EVG volunteers and partners departed from Ho Chi Minh City, arriving at Gia Bac village after 7 hours on bus. In spite of the tiredness from the long transport journey, we had our lunch and prepare for work immediately. We are highly motivated, to have the opportunity of serving the village, and make a difference to the villagers’ life.

“Never give up and keeping working hard” is the motto that the volunteers and our partners uphold throughout the work. In our life, we have been working long hours for the company, studying hard for the school, in the midst of all the hectic lifestyle, we tend to forget about a lot of basic life values. We forget about being passionate about our work, we become cold-hearted and do not give back to the community, and we no longer feel the youthful exuberance in us. Thankfully for this project, we discovered the spirit of giving back to the society and what it means to be aware of what is around us.

We worked as a team to build stove step by step, starting from constructing of frames to mixing of concrete, build stove, gathering of bricks… etc. We changed our job scope with another one so that everyone gets to experience the different job scope.

Besides building stove, one part of the project was to educate the children with personal hygiene. They were very excited to attend the lessons, and gain a lot of useful knowledge from the sessions. We used reward system, to encourage them to participate more during the lessons.

After teaching, we gave them 350 token of gifts. We hoped that these gifts will encourage them, to study hard and be optimistic about life. We gave them from the bottom of our heart, and we want them to know that they are not alone despite their hardships. There are many out there, who wants to share the love with them, they have to be confident that the world is full of opportunities. They got to keep the belief, and only then, they will have the strength to overcome all challenges.

At the end of the project, we all learned our useful life skills, forging new friendship, and gave a hand in helping to improve the society, and ensure sustainability in the life of Gia Bac Village.

Clean Water Project is a collaborative project between ECO Vietnam Group and HSBC Bank with the support of LIN Center for Community Development.

– Time of the project took place: 9/7/2013- 31/12/2013

– Location: An Hiep Commune, Ba Tri district, Ben Tre province.

– Content: Building 50 reservoirs for 50 poor families in An Hiep Commune. Donating school supplies, bicycles for students in An Hiep 1 primary school and An Hiep 2 primary school.

The meaning of the project :

An Hiep is the poorest commune in the 23 communes of Ba Tri district , Ben Tre province . This is an agricultural region , is divided into two areas : land and isles . The population of An Hiep is 121.881 or 2,724 households . On the isle land , because of the lack of clean water , people can not farm that have to employed only with very low wages in the surrounding areas or HCMC . Because life is too difficult, the learning of children are not receiving the necessary attention . One of the urgent issues to be addressed here is clean water . Located near the sea , An Hiep has only two seasons: saltwater and freshwater . Salt water can not be used in crop and livestock production ; whereas freshwater resources also affected by acidity , affect the use in daily life . The only source of clean water is rain water here . So , in the rainy season , people have used the reservoir to reserve water for dry season . However, in many poor families can not afford to build the reservoir, so they have to buy water or use salt water. Therefore, the clean water project brings 50 reservoirs for 50 poor families in the hope that reduced somewhat difficult for the people of this land .

Activity report:

A) Construction of water reservoir:

– On 2/8, 16 HSBC staff and 4 volunteers of EVG has built 8 reservoirs for 8 poor households in An Hiep .

– The remaining 42 reservoirs assigned to the local to they build and was completed in 9/2013.

– On 10/02/2013, 5 representatives of ECO Vietnam Group go to the local to test 42 reservoirs .

B) Giving gifts to elementary students:

– On 08/03/2013, HSBC staff and volunteers have an exchange day and teach student of An Hiep 1 primary school about hygiene. Late sessions, 160 gifts (by HSBC charge) including pair textbooks were given to 160 school children at An Hiep 1.

– In addition, 5 bike (charge by HSBC) has also been given to 5 students with good academic and disadvantaged of An Hiep 2 school.